Gillian was visiting at the family’s home in Tiverton, and LePage had just made them nail and hair appointments. As they were getting ready to leave the house, Gillian came out to her as gay.

“She stuck it in right before we left,” LePage recalled. “She lived in Texas so it wasn’t something like we could have a long discussion about.

“This was not something we had even discussed, but Gillian knew enough that her family would be supportive,” she added.

LePage knew being a good ally for her daughter was something she would have to learn how to do. Toward that end, she searched online for support groups and stumbled upon the Greater Providence Chapter of PFLAG (Parents, Families, Friends, Allies and Members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Community).

“I joined PFLAG because, one, I had to come out myself, which is one thing that PFLAG … helps parents and friends and family members do,” she explained in the Channing Memorial Church Parish Hall on Sunday. “Two, to be the right kind of ally for her, having the correct vocabulary and being able to discuss the topic without making a fool out of myself. And also because I needed to do a little mourning, and my daughter knew that. It wasn’t a bad thing; it was just a change in ideation.”

LePage went from being a regular at PFLAG’s monthly meetings at The Met School in Providence to taking on a more active role within the organization, first booking its speakers and now launching a satellite chapter in Newport.

The new chapter was a byproduct in part of LePage moving from Tiverton to Middletown, which lengthened her monthly commute to the meetings in Providence.

"It got to be a bit much," she said. "I knew I was going to be missing that and I wondered if there was a need for that in this area."

This past March, she started attending services at Channing Memorial Church on Pelham Street, where she met members of Interweave, the church’s LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) group that focuses on education, support and advocacy.

With the church’s willingness to host PFLAG meetings and Interweave getting on board, LePage took her request for a Newport satellite chapter to the Greater Providence Chapter. After making her pitch to the chapter’s board at a meeting in July, it gave its blessing for the satellite, she told The Daily News.

The monthly meetings will consist of announcements and guided discussion groups. Attendees can share their experiences, or simply listen — whatever they feel comfortable doing. All the discussions are kept confidential once the meetings are over, LePage said.

“What we want to do here is have the support piece,” she said. “That’s the most important piece and that’s what everyone tells me is what brings them to PFLAG — the hour of support.”

“I see this PFLAG chapter as being something so, so necessary,” Rex LeBeau of Interweave told The Daily News on Sunday. “I think people come to Interweave looking for that type of support, but because we’re not specifically a support group, they get some connections and some help but they need more.”

An open house will be offered on Thursday, Sept. 27, from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Channing Parish Hall to gauge interest in the monthly support meetings.

“It seems like a really great core group of people,” said Sandra Richard, a former board president of the Greater Providence Chapter and the Northeast regional director of PFLAG. “We do get interest from Newport. And it’s a hike to come to [Providence] at night for a meeting. I felt they’re good people to serve families struggling with LGBTQ issues.”

“I’m really proud of her,” Gillian LePage said of her mother’s involvement with PFLAG. “She’s always been good at following through with a project.”

Gillian LePage, 31, who lives in Dallas, said she decided to come out to her mother because she wanted to stop talking evasively about her romantic life.

“I just kind of dropped it on her,” she told The Daily News on Monday. She knew her family would be supportive, though she is aware that others are not afforded that benefit.

LeBeau pointed to the attendance at Interweave’s annual prom that draws many LGBTQ students across Newport County as a reason why a local PFLAG chapter makes sense.

“We’ve gotten anywhere from 100 to 200 people. It’s almost all young people and quite a number from the local high schools,” LeBeau said. “But the fact that we get hundreds of young people means that all those young people have parents or someone looking after them. They might have siblings. They might have grandparents. Are those people getting what they need? This is a way to get what they need. We know they’re out there.”

dgomes@newportri.com

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